We study a general theory on the interference of two-photon wavepacket in a beam splitter (BS). We find that the perfect coalescence interference requires a symmetric spectrum of two-photon wavepacket which can be entangled or un-entangled. Furthermore, we introduce a two-photon wavepacket with anti-symmetric spectrum, which is related with photon entanglement and shows a perfect anti-coalescence effect. The theory present uniform and complete explanation to two-photon interference.
We study a general theory on the interference of a two-photon wavepacket in a beam splitter. The theory is carried out in the Schrödinger picture so that the quantum nature of the two-photon interference is explicitly presented. We find that the topological symmetry of the probability-amplitude spectrum of the two-photon wavepacket dominates the manners of two-photon interference which are distinguished according to increasing and decreasing the coincidence probability for the absence of interference. However, two-photon entanglement can be witnessed by the interference manner. We demonstrate …
Quantum theory predicts that two indistinguishable photons incident on a beam-splitter interferometer stick together as they exit the device (the pair emerges randomly from one port or the other). We use a special photon-number-resolving energy detector for a direct loophole-free observation of this quantum-interference phenomenon. Simultaneous measurements from two such detectors, one at each beam-splitter output port, confirm the absence of cross-coincidences.
We study a general theory on the interference of two-photon wavepacket in a beam splitter. We find that the symmetry of two-photon spectrum plays an important role in the manners of interference. We distinguish the coalescence and anti-coalescence interferences, and prove that the anti-coalescence interference is the signature of photon entanglement.
A lossless beam-splitter has certain (complex-valued) probability amplitudes for sending an incoming photon into one of two possible directions. We use elementary laws of classical and quantum optics to obtain general relations among the magnitudes and phases of these probability amplitudes. Proceeding to examine a pair of (nearly) single-mode wavepackets in the number-states |n1> and |n2> that simultaneously arrive at the splitter's input ports, we find the distribution of photon-number states at the output ports using an argument inspired by Feynman's scattering analysis of indistinguishable…
The main features of quantum mechanics reside in interference deriving from the superposition of different quantum objects. While current quantum optical technology enables two-photon interference both in bulk and integrated systems, simultaneous interference of more than two particles, leading to richer quantum phenomena, is still a challenging task. Here we report the experimental observation of three-photon interference in an integrated three-port directional coupler realized by ultrafast laser-writing. By exploiting the capability of this technique to produce three-dimensional structures, …
The interference of two single photons impinging on a beam splitter is measured in a time-resolved manner. Using long photons of different frequencies emitted from an atom-cavity system, a quantum beat with a visibility close to 100% is observed in the correlation between the photodetections at the output ports of the beam splitter. The time dependence of the beat amplitude reflects the coherence properties of the photons. Most remarkably, simultaneous photodetections are never observed, so that a temporal filter allows one to obtain perfect two-photon coalescence even for non-perfect photons.
We investigate the spin entanglement in the superconductor-quantum dot system proposed by Recher, Sukhorukov and Loss, coupling it to an electronic beam-splitter. The superconductor-quantum dot entangler and the beam-splitter are treated within a unified framework and the entanglement is detected via current correlations. The state emitted by the entangler is found to be a linear superposition of non-local spin-singlets at different energies, a spin-entangled two-particle wavepacket. Colliding the two electrons in the beam-splitter, the singlet spin-state gives rise to a bunching behavior, det…
Surface plasma waves are collective oscillations of electrons that propagate along a metal-dielectric interface. In the last ten years, several groups have reproduced fundamental quantum optics experiments with surface plasmons. Observation of single-plasmon states, waveparticle duality, preservation of entanglement of photons in plasmon-assisted transmission, and more recently, two-plasmon interference have been reported. While losses are detrimental for the observation of squeezed states, they can be seen as a new degree of freedom in the design of plasmonic devices, thus revealing new quant…
Time resolution at the quantum limit of two incoherent sources based on frequency resolved two-photon-interference
University of Portsmouth（朴茨茅斯大学）；School of Mathematics and Physics, University of Portsmouth（朴茨茅斯大学数学与物理学院）；Quantum Science and Technology Hub, University of Portsmouth（朴茨茅斯大学量子科学与技术中心）；Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, University of Portsmouth（朴茨茅斯大学宇宙学与引力研究所）
The orbital angular momentum (OAM) of light, associated with a helical structure of the wavefunction, has a great potential for quantum photonics, as it allows attaching a higher dimensional quantum space to each photon. Hitherto, however, the use of OAM has been hindered by its difficult manipulation. Here, exploiting the recently demonstrated spin-OAM information transfer tools, we report the first observation of the Hong-Ou-Mandel coalescence of two incoming photons having nonzero OAM into the same outgoing mode of a beam-splitter. The coalescence can be switched on and off by varying the i…
Two-photon interference is a fundamental quantum optics effect with numerous applications in quantum information science. Here, we study two-photon interference in multiple transverse-spatial modes along a single beam-path. Besides implementing the analogue of the Hong-Ou-Mandel interference using a two-dimensional spatial-mode splitter, we extend the scheme to observe coalescence and anti-coalescence in different three and four-dimensional spatial-mode multiports. The operation within spatial modes, along a single beam-path, lifts the requirement for interferometric stability and opens up new…
Bose-Einstein coalescence of independent photons at the surface of a beam splitter is the physical process that allows linear optical quantum gates to be built. When distinct parametric down-conversion events are used as an independent photon source, distinguishability arises form the energy correlation of each photon with its twin. We find that increasing the pump bandwidth may help in improving the visibility of non-classical interference and reaching a level of near perfect indistinguishability. PACS: 03.67.Mn, 42.65.Lm, 42.50.St.
The indistinguishability of successively generated photons from a single quantum emitter is most commonly measured using two-photon interference at a beam splitter. Whilst for sources excited in the pulsed regime the measured bunching of photons reflects the full wavepacket indistinguishability of the emitted photons, for continuous wave (cw) excitation the inevitable dependence on detector timing resolution and driving strength obscures the underlying photon interference process. Here we derive a method to extract the photon indistinguishability from cw measurements by considering the relevan…
We present a theoretical study of Fano interference effects in few-photon transport. Under appropriate conditions, a local defect in an optical waveguide induces a highly asymmetric transmission lineshape, characteristic of Fano interference. For a two-level emitter placed adjacent to such a defect, here modeled as a partially transmitting element, we find an analytical expression for the full time evolution of single-photon wavepackets and the emitter excitation probability. We show how the partially transmitting element affects the emitter lifetime and shifts the spectral position of the eff…
When two indistinguishable single photons are fed into the two input ports of a beam splitter, the photons will coalesce and leave together from the same output port. This is a quantum interference effect, which occurs because the two possible paths where the photons leave in different output ports interfere destructively. This effect was first observed in parametric downconversion by Hong, Ou and Mandel, and then with single photons produced one after the other by the same quantum emitter. With the recent development of quantum information, a lot of attention has been devoted to this coalesce…
Fourth-order interference is an information processing primitive for photonic quantum technologies. When used in conjunction with post-selection, it forms the basis of photonic controlled logic gates, entangling measurements, and can be used to produce quantum correlations. Here, using classical weak coherent states as inputs, we study fourth-order interference in novel $4 \times 4$ multi-port beam splitters built within multi-core optical fibers. Using two mutually incoherent weak laser pulses as inputs, we observe high-quality fourth order interference between photons from different cores, a…
A strong limitation of linear optical quantum computing is the probabilistic operation of two-quantum bit gates based on the coalescence of indistinguishable photons. A route to deterministic operation is to exploit the single-photon nonlinearity of an atomic transition. Through engineering of the atom-photon interaction, phase shifters, photon filters and photon- photon gates have been demonstrated with natural atoms. Proofs of concept have been reported with semiconductor quantum dots, yet limited by inefficient atom-photon interfaces and dephasing. Here we report on a highly efficient singl…
